Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE OLYMPIA OLYMPICS
The Olympic tradition emerged around the 11th century BC as a paean to Zeus, in
the form of contests, attended initially by notable men - and women - who as-
sembled before the sanctuary priests and swore to uphold solemn oaths. By the
8th century attendance had grown from a wide confederacy of city-states, and the
festival morphed into a male-only major event lasting five days at the site of
Olympia. First prize might have been a simple laurel wreath, but it was the esteem
of the people that most mattered, for Greek olympiads were as venerated as Ro-
man gladiators. A ceremonial truce was enforced for the duration of the games.
Crowds of spectators lined the tracks, where competitors vied for an honourable
(and at times dishonourable) victory in athletics, chariot races, wrestling and box-
ing (back then there were no gloves but simple leather straps). Three millennia
later, while the scale and scope of the games may have expanded considerably,
and bar the fact that the ancient games were always held in Olympia, the basic
format is essentially unchanged. To visit the original site, with its still extant track
and fallen columns, is amazingly evocative.
Classical Age
An explosion in form and light, Greece's Golden Age, from the 6th to 4th centuries BC,
saw a renaissance in cultural creativity. Literature and drama blossomed as many city-
states enjoyed increased economic reform, political prosperity and a surge in mental agil-
ity, led by the noble works of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles who contributed dra-
matic tragedies, and Aristophanes who inspired political satire with his comedies. Today
the potency of this fertile era still resonates - many ideas discussed today were debated
by these great minds. And that's not forgetting the journalistic blogs of historians Hero-
dotus - widely regarded as the father of history - and Thucydides.
Athens reached its zenith after the monumental defeat of the Persians at the Battle of
Marathon in 490 BC, founding the Delian League, a naval alliance formed to liberate
city-states still occupied by Persia. Many Aegean and Ionian city-states swore an allegi-
ance to Athens, making an annual contribution to the treasury of ships, bringing it fant-
astic wealth unrivalled by its poor neighbour, Sparta, and also turning it into something
of an empire.
When Pericles became leader of Athens in 461 BC, he moved the treasury from Delos
to the Acropolis, reappropriating funds to construct grander temples upon it, including
the majestic Parthenon, and elsewhere, including the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. It was
also during this Classical period that sculptors developed a more naturalistic, aesthetic
style for marble pieces and bronze casts, and it was Pericles who commissioned the
